Everyone is nodding their heads and standing up for Master Xu. Just as they just said that they wanted to unite around Chen Zizhuang.

Whether Tang Mu's words are true or false, they don't know, but there is one thing, Tang Mu said, he is here to clean up the aftermath, what is the aftermath, is compensation.

The gentry knew very well that if they broke up with Li Zhaoji's Oriental Trading Company, the big guy would have nothing, but on the contrary, they turned their backs on Chen Zizhuang, and the Guangdong gentry were still the Guangdong gentry.

Tang Mu shook the people around him and said, "I already said it just now, because the big shopkeeper expected that the Zheng family would be in trouble, so he took Zheng Sen as a hostage in advance to make a fool of himself. When he arrived in Nagasaki, the chief treasurer did not want to enter the port, but moored his ships on the islands on the left and let the ships enter the port one by one to trade. ”

The gentry nodded one after another, obviously satisfied with Li Zhaoji's arrangement, which was both organized and thoughtful enough.

"But when Chen Si'an went to Nagasaki to trade on behalf of the trading company, he fell into the strategy pursued by Nagasaki, and deceived Chen Si'an, if the Chen family can help them take down my Oriental Trading Company, they can replace the Oriental Trading Company in the future and monopolize the trade between Guangdong and Nagasaki.

After Chen Si'an returned, he told Chen Sigongzi that the fourth prince also forgot his righteousness, and Nagasaki also promised to protect the goods of the Cantonese gentry, so he allocated the goods, unified the goods of the Chen family, the Huang family and other families on the Lingding Island, and then entered Nagasaki.

Fortunately, our trading company was blessed by God, and the Zheng family misunderstood Shi Lang, thinking that my family's big treasurer had harmed Zheng Sen, so they hurried to Nagasaki and clashed with the Lingding Island, resulting in the seizure of the Lingding Island and the capture of the fourth son, but also the preservation of other ships and goods.

At that time, the chief shopkeeper did not know that it was the master and servant of the Chen family who were secretly colluding, that is, they were detained in Hong Kong to ask for crimes, and they clashed with the Japanese people. Tang Mu said to the people around him with a straight face.

Chen Zizhuang's face was extremely ugly, he clenched his fists and gritted his teeth silently, because he didn't want to be charged with harboring and bullying.

However, Master Huang lost the most, and he has always been friendly with the Chen family, so he took the initiative to ask: "Tang Mu, what are the evidences for what you said?" ”

Tang Mu took out a letter from the deerskin bag and said, "I have evidence." This is Chen Si'an's confession, he took care of the goods, and was not trapped in Nagasaki, after the fourth prince was detained, he explained everything, wrote out, and there was a handwritten confession here, after the explanation, it was suicide to apologize. ”

"Haha, the old man thought it was ........" Chen Zizhuang's face softened slightly, and he reprimanded, but was interrupted by Tang Mu: "Why does Master Chen think that this is our trading company forcing him and killing people again?" ”

That's what Chen Zizhuang meant, and Tang Mu took out a few more letters and said, "Here is a letter from Zheng Tai of the Zheng family and Nagasaki to explain the letter from the Racecourse Ryshige, and a letter of explanation signed by the co-signatory. Of course, this is a copy, if you don't believe it, when the fleet returns, you can see the two of them handwriting. ”

As he spoke, these letters were handed over to the gentry present to read in turn, and the whole story of the matter was clearly stated in these letters.

Chen Zizhuang also read it again, and felt that the logic was self-consistent and did not find any problems, but what Tang Mu said was related to the reputation of the Chen family, if it was confirmed, the reputation of the Chen family would be lost, and he would still bear the responsibility for the failure of the Nagasaki trade, after all, Li Zhaoji's approach was impeccable, and everything was because Chen Huaiyu forgot his righteousness.

"A dead man's confession, a few hand-copied letters, I can't count them, let's wait for Li Zhaoji to send them in his own handwriting." Chen Zizhuang didn't wait for everyone to express his position, and said.

Tang Mu smiled: "I just know that there will be people who deliberately do not distinguish between right and wrong and deduct all the responsibilities on our trading company." Luckily, I had a witness, and I was in my pocket outside the door. ”

"It also depends on who it is." Chen Zizhuang said lightly and beckoned to the people outside: "Bring in the pockets outside." ”

The housekeeper outside heard it, dragged his pocket in, and when he passed the threshold, the head of the person inside hit it hard, he didn't care, he heard it clearly outside the door, the person inside was a witness, he came to ruin the reputation of the Chen family, and he wanted to kill the people inside.

"Open." Chen Zizhuang said lightly.

The housekeeper tore off the rope, pulled out the head of the person inside, pulled off the rags in his mouth, and a face with a blue nose and swollen face was presented in front of him, some of the injuries on it were pinched, and some were touched just now, but when he saw this face, the housekeeper was directly stunned.

The man cried out directly: "Dad..... Why are you so ruthless, kicking and pinching, almost killing your son? ”

This person is the housekeeper's son Chen Xing, when Chen Zizhuang sent Chen Huaiyu to the Oriental Trading Company to experience, the housekeeper also felt that this was an opportunity, and hurriedly sent his son by his side.

"Son, son........" The housekeeper hurriedly pulled Chen Xing out of his pocket and wanted to untie the rope, but was kicked away by Tang Mu.

Tang Mu grabbed Chen Xing's shoulder and said, "Chen Xing, how did Chen Huaiyu and Chen Si'an conspire on the boat that day, you tell the truth. ”

Chen Xing is Chen Huaiyu's servant, and he takes care of him more on weekdays, and Chen Si'an never avoids him when he talks to Chen Huaiyu. After Chen Huaiyu was detained, Chen Xing was distraught, this time when he came back from Sado, he was thrown into the bilge like a pig, tortured by dampness and darkness every day, and he had long lost any intention of resisting, what Tang Mu asked him to do, he didn't dare to say a word.

"I really don't care about my business, it was Chen Si'an who said that an adult in Nagasaki wanted to give the Chen family a chance to replace the Oriental Trading Company, and the two of them discussed ........" Chen Xing knelt on the ground and said everything he knew.

In this way, the truth was revealed, and Tang Mu stuffed Chen Xing back again.

"Tang Mu, what are you doing, this is my Chen family's servant." Chen Zizhuang shouted.

Tang Mu pulled out the knife and put it directly on his pocket, and the frightened housekeeper knelt directly on the ground, Tang Mu said: "Master Chen, all the masters, the fourth prince has been detained, except for him, you have only lost some goods."

As for my trading company, more than 20 brothers have died at the hands of the Japanese people, many of whom are my siblings. Someone has to be responsible for this, Chen Si'an is dead, and the dead are not counted, so Chen Xing has to take this matter.

I brought him here to testify, but I didn't say I was going to let him go. If you stand in your way, I'll kill him now!" ”

"Master, don't dare, don't dare, the old slave is just such a son." The butler kowtowed again and again, shouting.

"What are you going to do?" Chen Zizhuang asked.

Tang Mu said: "Chen Xing is under the care of my people, and when the big shopkeeper comes back, you can discuss with him how to deal with it, whether to kill or release, I only listen to the big shopkeeper." ”

"Okay, that's it." Chen Zizhuang flicked his sleeves and ordered the housekeeper to invite Tang Mu's men outside.

The bearded man brought people in and took Chen Xingkang away, the housekeeper hurriedly followed, and when he got out of the flower hall, he took out the silver from his arms and stuffed it into the beard's hand, begging him to take good care of his son.

The beard grabbed the silver, and his hands were blue, but he still didn't dare to ask for it.

He has also entered the guard now, and the rules are extremely strict, especially under Tang Mu, if he is discovered, he will cut off his hands.

"Come on, old fellow." The bearded man threw the silver to the butler, took him to the side of the tree, and said to him: "You heard clearly in the hall just now, this has nothing to do with your son, it is the sin of Chen Si'an and your son-in-law. If you want to save your son, I'll give you a way, you go and bring Chen Si'an's family to me and hand it over to me to dispose of, Chen Xing, you will definitely be able to save your life. ”

The butler asked, "You are serious." ”

"This is only one chance, if it's too late, your son's life will be up to you." The beard said lightly.

Flower Hall.

Chen Xing's words are enough to prove that the initiator of this incident is the master and servant of the Chen family, and for a while, Chen Zizhuang's face couldn't hold it, and he almost fainted. But the faces of the rest of the gentry were not good-looking.

The reason for this is actually very simple, since they knew that something had happened to the Beihang trading fleet, what they were thinking about was how to recover their losses.

Who is responsible? Who is responsible, if there is no Tang Mu, everyone will definitely find the Oriental Trading Company for compensation, but now that Tang Mu is here, it proves that the responsibility lies with the master and servant of the Chen family, what about everyone's losses? Do you want to find Chen Zizhuang responsible?

Master Xu coughed lightly and said, "I look at that Chen Xing is a little delirious, his words are ........" ”

"Wait!" Tang Mu interrupted Master Xu's remarks, Tang Mu smiled and said, "Master Xu, can you listen to me finish speaking." ”

"Mr. Chen is not feeling well today, don't provoke him to be unhappy anymore." Master Xu was interrupted by Tang Mu, displeased, and reminded.

"I don't know if Master Chen is happy or not, but what I say below, I guess you will be very happy to hear it." Tang Mu said with a smile.

Master Xu smiled, stroked his beard and said, "You can tell me about it." ”

"Ladies and gentlemen, the big shopkeeper of my family has been a righteous hero, and has repeatedly done a lot of great things for the court and the people. This time I cooperated with the gentry and traded with Beihang, everyone's cooperation was pleasant, if there was no Chen family master and servant to disrupt the itinerary, I estimate that the big guys should now sit around and divide the gold and silver with a big scale, and then discuss the matter of this trade fleet. Tang Mu said.

"Something to say." Master Xu glanced at Chen Zizhuang and knew that Chen Zizhuang's mental state was extremely bad, so he reminded.

Tang Mu clasped his fists at everyone and said: "The big shopkeeper is righteous, I don't want your partners to be damaged, this voyage, our trading company has to bear the loss." ”

As soon as these words came out, there was an uproar in the flower hall, and Master Huang, who was originally extremely sad, immediately got up and asked, "So, your trading company is willing to compensate us." ”

Tang Mu's face was straight: "The merits have already been explained just now." Since it is not the responsibility of our trading company, how can we compensate? ”

"Then why did you just say that you were going to bear the loss?" Master Huang couldn't help but have an urge to be tricked.

Master Xu heard the deep meaning of Tang Mu's words, he pulled Master Huang and said: "Brother Huang, the shopkeeper Li bears the loss, out of righteousness, to make friends with us, not compensation." ”

Master Huang nodded slightly, looked at Tang Mu, after getting Tang Mu's nod and promise, his mood was happy again, now he only cares if he can be pulled back by the money that has been lost, as for the name, he doesn't care.

"As far as I know, the goods of the Cantonese gentry on your ship are worth 2340,000 yuan." Master Xu said.

"The ships on board in Macao alone are worth 237,000 taels." Although Master Huang is also famous, he is a philistine and is very familiar with things in the trading industry.

When the fleet set sail, he went to Macao in person, and he knew the accounts and goods best among the gentry present.

Master Xu nodded: "Tang Mu, this trade failed, and you didn't make any money, what compensation do you get...... What can we do to make up for everyone's losses? ”

"Bring the box in!" Tang Mu said in a deep voice.

Immediately, eight servants carried the box in with a big bar, and Tang Mu opened the box, revealing a golden winter melon inside.

"It's gold!" Master Huang pounced directly, almost with a roar.

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